The increase in activity in the mobile healthcare and user discrete diagnostic fields have highlighted some shortcomings of current diagnostic and personalized analytical systems targeted at static weight while standing and load bearing weight while walking.
Weight diagnostic systems generally come in a number of categories with a range of purposes and uses. In general, weighing systems use electronic based digital scales which, when stood upon by a person, measures and displays the person's static weight in a manner common to those systems and devices. These measurements are used to determine static weight gain or loss, as well as for the analysis of dietary health, fitness and activity level, as well as possible disease association. Weight monitoring, for example, is critical to the health and wellbeing of a person with renal failure and is a requirement for the use of a dialysis machine. Load bearing weight while standing, walking and/or running, for example, are important indicators in determining progression or regression of a given activity, therapy or remedy. Adverse reactions to prescribed pharmacological and therapeutic treatments of disease, as well as post-surgical rehabilitation are known to adversely affect a person's weight.
The above noted weighing systems have their drawbacks. Specifically, general weighing systems are fixed devices normally found in home bathrooms, at doctor's offices, and in hospitals and they display the static weight of the person. Similarly, other weight bio-sensing devices are limited in scope and use. As well, they usually involve expensive fixed systems normally found in research laboratories and universities. These and other current weighing systems have been seen as too limited when also considering angular kinematics of the joints, center of force, or plantar center of pressure and body segments or load bearing weight through a walking person's gait phase. They are also seen as not suitable for mobile use.
There is therefore a need for a weighing diagnostic system that is neither static nor linear in scope and use. As well, such a weighing diagnostic system is preferably wearable and mobile, capable of dynamic load bearing measurements while standing and through a walking person's gait phase and not be vulnerable to power failures within a select timeframe. It is also preferred that the weighing diagnostic system have the ability to measure and assess the user's unique biometric loop signature data associated with the user's static weight and load bearing weight at any time interval for instantaneous comparison against a stored loop signature. Preferably, the system also allows for the storage of the loop signature comparison data as well as results. These can then be used for communication to an external device or system for ongoing analysis in providing personalized recommendations, therapeutics, remedies and or products.